Saturday, September 01, 2018

1/144 Rockwell B-1 Lancer - Doyusha (Dragon)

It is not clear if this will be a pre-painted kit or a pre-assembled item?

it's part of Doyusha's "凄!" (Sugo!) (Eng trans: Amazing!) brand model kits. They did 1/72 kits of the Phantom, Super Hornet, Strike Eagle over the past year or so.

The gimmick or draw of these kits are that they are snap-fit and pre-colored. Pre-colored in that the plastic is somewhat close to the main color of the aircraft. It's not pre-painted. Also, the kits are provided with sticker sheets and water-slides for the markings. Sticker sheets for the kiddies who just want to snap it together. Water-slides for the more serious kit builders.

The poster suggests that this a brand new mold. So it does not look to be a rebox of the Dragon kit.

The Rockwell B-1 Lancer[N 1] is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It is commonly called the "Bone" (from "B-One"). It is one of three strategic bombers in the U.S. Air Force fleet as of 2018, the other two being the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress.

The B-1 was first envisioned in the 1960s as a platform that would combine the Mach 2 speed of the B-58 Hustler with the range and payload of the B-52, and would ultimately replace both bombers. After a long series of studies, Rockwell International (now part of Boeing) won the design contest for what emerged as the B-1A. This version had a top speed of Mach 2.2 at high altitude and the capability of flying for long distances at Mach 0.85 at very low altitudes. The combination of the high cost of the aircraft, the introduction of the AGM-86 cruise missile that flew the same basic profile, and early work on the stealth bomber all significantly affected the need for the B-1. This led to the program being canceled in 1977, after the B-1A prototypes had been builthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_B-1_Lancer